Dissolving the Community Estate During Marriage: Scenario for Military Divorce

In my last blog, we looked at how spouses can dissolve the community estate and create only separate property by executing a Partition & Exchange Agreement.  To read that blog, click here.  I mentioned that in this next blog, we’d look at a scenario where executing a Partition & Exchange Agreement may be a good option in some military divorces.

Sometimes in military divorce, the issue of permitting the soon-to-be-former-spouse the opportunity to quality as a “20/20/20” or “20/20/15” spouse looms large with respect to continued health insurance (i.e. TRICARE).  Qualification as a 20/20/20 spouse means that an unremarried former spouse qualifies to get his or her own ID card and lifetime TRICARE benefits.  Qualification as a 20/20/15 spouse means that an unremarried former spouse qualifies for one-year of TRICARE benefits post-divorce.  To read more directly from TRICARE’s website, click here.

By executing a Partition & Exchange Agreement — that should include “freezing” computations for the division of military retired pay and division of Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) sums, for example — the servicemember can create an absolute limit to his or her financial obligations in divorce, yet permit the divorce to be entered months later in order to facilitate the soon-to-be-former-spouse who is near, but not yet at, either the 20/20/20 or 20/20/15 benchmark, reach that important milestone. 

To learn more, speak with a qualified military divorce attorney about how a Partition & Exchange Agreement might be a good option in your situation.

Author Jim Cramp is a retired active duty colonel and the founder and principal attorney at the Cramp Law Firm, PLLC.  The firm provides a spectrum of family law-related services to clients in the greater San Antonio region, across the United States and throughout the world.  The firms also provides Wills and Estates and Probate services.